7JFXQPJOU N GUEST OPINION VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY
City should plan to redress the jobs-housing imbalance By Lenny Siegel
M
ountain View, along with other industrial suburbs on the Peninsula, has suffered from a jobshousing imbalance for decades, and if our City Council moves ahead with its tentative plan for North Bayshore, that imbalance will be aggravated. The city is planning for the construction of high-tech office space designed to house more than 15,000 workers, with no housing allowed on that side of the freeway. What is the jobs-housing imbalance? Simply, it describes a situation in which many more people work in Mountain View than there are employees who live in Mountain View. Here are the numbers for 2011 (the last year for which data is available), and the imbalance has visibly worsened since then. What’s wrong with the jobshousing imbalance? It drives up the cost of housing and threatens the economic, social, and cultural diversity of our community. It
makes traffic more congested. It creates longer and longer commutes, wasting energy and generating vast quantities of greenhouse gases. And in the long run, it even undermines the vitality of the Silicon Valley economy. Instead of promoting uncontrolled high-tech employment growth, Mountain View can plan North Bayshore to create a desirable new, medium-density residential neighborhood in one of the world’s most dynamic centers of employment. I am not suggesting that everyone who works in Mountain View should live in Mountain View. Currently under 8 percent do. As many Mountain View workers live in Sunnyvale, and nearly three times that live in San Jose. Besides, city boundaries are an imperfect measure of proximity. Many homes in Palo Alto and Sunnyvale are closer to Mountain View’s high-tech complexes than homes in southern Mountain View. People make housing and job
N 2 0 1 1 J O B S - H O U S I N G S TAT I S T I C S
Population ..............................................................................74,618 Jobs ......................................................................................... 66,768 Housing Units ....................................................................... 33,945 Employed Residents.............................................................. 39,500 Jobs/Housing............................................................................. 1.97 Jobs/Employed Residents......................................................... 1.69 Jobs minus Housing ............................................................. 32,823 Jobs minus Employed Residents ......................................... 27,268 choices based upon many factors, and those factors change over time. The primary goal of providing housing near employment is to give people the opportunity to live close to work, reducing their commute times and to allow parents to be closer to their schoolchildren should emergencies arise. Even if people other than local employees live in workplace-centered housing, the new land-use pattern can open up reverse-commute capacity in roadways and create a critical mass of travelers to make better public transit cost-effective. Earlier this month the Cam-
paign for a Balanced Mountain View was formed to promote the following principles for North Bayshore development. We propose: ■ Enough residential units to accommodate new employees and create an opportunity for a better balance of jobs and housing in the area. ■ A mid-rise, medium-density, compact community with a good balance of jobs, housing, and local services, including cafes, shops, and educational facilities, as well as at least one supermarket, to serve local needs. ■ A mix of housing that serves
N LETTERS
N GUEST OPINION
VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY
VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY
Continued from previous page
turn left onto the expressway. My suggestion: Dedicate the far left lane to left turns onto Central. Dedicate the center two lanes for straight traffic only. Dedicate the far right lane for right turns onto Central and for the bus stop. Most importantly, return to the flashing red signal at the tracks. This will allow right turning cars to clear the intersection when safe onto Central and not be hindered by pedestrians. This will allow the orderly stacking of cars going straight in the center lanes and allow up to eight vehicles to safely stage themselves past the tracks as they have done for decades. The end result is more vehicles clearing from downtown when a train comes and more orderly and efficient usage of space by those waiting for a green signal. Once this trick signal is corrected, it will also reduce the undue financial burden being placed on motorists that frankly don’t even realize they are making a mistake. I hope there are others as frustrated by this intersection as I am. Please pass my idea and your own comments on to our city council members and let’s see if we can fix this. Greg David Fairmont Avenue
Why we need taller buildings
ARTS SUPPORT CAN HELP STEM STUDENTS I am an engineer, a strong supporter of STEM education and have volunteered in our schools in support of STEM. However, I must respectfully disagree with Steven Nelson’s position that funding for performing arts undercuts STEM and students pursuing STEM careers. Participation in group performances such as band or drama teaches students to work together as a team. Being able to work in a team is an extremely important skill for engineers and scientists. Participation in performing arts develops a student’s ability to be comfortable in front of a crowd. This helps students pursuing STEM careers because they will need to effectively present their work to their peers, management and at conferences. My older son’s high school writing teacher recommended a drama class as a good way to develop the ability to take on different roles from one’s natural personality. There is also plenty of opportunity for the application of technology in performing arts such as taking and producing videos of performances and working with mixing and sound equipment. With the importance of video as a communication tool for everything from technology tutorials to marketing, it would
diverse income levels and family sizes. ■ A vibrant neighborhood that stays alive when major employers close for the day or the week. ■ Comfortable, convenient personal mobility within North Bayshore, including walking, biking and public transportation. ■ Permanent connections from North Bayshore to the regional transit system via the downtown Caltrain station and the VTA light rail system. Mountain View needs to reform more than its North Bayshore plan, and Mountain View cannot do it alone. But in the absence of concerted action by local residents and employees outraged by our deteriorating quality of life, things will only get worse. Lenny Siegel is the executive director of the Mountain Viewbased Center for Public Environmental Oversight (cpeo.org).
By Ania Mitros
T
he City Council’s decisions on development baffle me. I see rents and house values skyrocketing, with longtime residents complaining that Googlers are pricing them out of the city, and even some of my Google friends choosing to live elsewhere due to house prices. Yet the City Council blocks the sort of highdensity development that would bring the housing supply and demand into balance. Google is a fantastic employer, providing good wages and benefits to its employees. In spite of complaints that Googlers don’t eat out at lunch, they do buy groceries, pay rent, go out for dinners and drinks, and support families who don’t eat every lunch at Google. Surely Google adds to the local economy. Assuming we don’t want to exile Google from Mountain View, the City Council should embrace the economic boom in North Bayshore. City policies should aim to improve traffic near Highway 101, retain a green, tree-filled ambiance and improve walkability. To reduce traffic near Hwy. 101 at Google rush hour, the simplest solution would be to encourage more Googlers to live within walking or biking distance of Google. That means permitting at least as much residential development north of 101 as commercial development. A lot of Googlers would love to live closer to work and not use cars for their commute, but that is simply not an seem that such experience would also be beneficial for future engineers. For the above reasons and more, I feel my sons’ participation in music and drama pro-
option today. We just don’t have the land to house everyone who may like to live in North Bayshore in the sort of two-story houses that the city likes to permit. Plus, that would require paving over a lot of the trees and green spaces that make the area pleasant. Simple math suggests that to retain green spaces while increasing housing you have to build up. I’d much prefer a multi-story residential building next to a park over a dense highly-paved development of two-story condos. Yet, Mountain View seems staunchly opposed to building higher. Higher density housing is also the key to walkability. For a restaurant to subsist on clientele who mostly walk in, the nearby housing density needs to be high. And again, high housing density without losing all our lovely trees means building up rather than filling in the city’s green spaces with low buildings. The city seems to be struggling to define what it wants to be and how to gracefully accept and integrate the economic boom within its limits, and the people most hurt by this identity crisis are those least able to pay for an individual fix. As long as the city continues to oppose vertical development in proximity to employers in North Bayshore and restaurant clusters like Castro Street, the city will continue to escalate housing prices, squeeze out its least-wealthy residents, limit walkability and retain traffic congestion. Ania Mitros lives on Chiquita Avenue
grams at Mountain View middle and high schools has been of great benefit to them as they both pursue technical careers. I therefore support funding for performing arts facilities in our
schools because it will benefit future engineers as well as those pursuing arts careers. Yvonne Wilson San Pierre Way
March 21, 2014 ■ Mountain View Voice ■ MountainViewOnline.com ■
15